Coyotes Changing Name In 2014-2015 Season

The Phoenix Coyotes are going to look a little different in the upcoming 2014-2015 season.

On Wednesday, Anthony LeBlanc, Coyotes Co-owner, President, and CEO, officially announced the team would be changing from the Phoenix Coyotes to the Arizona Coyotes. LeBlanc added that the change makes sense because the team didn’t actually play in Phoenix. The Coyotes rink, Jobing.com Arena is located outside of Phoenix in Glendale. This change will also allow them to be the state of Arizona’s team, not just one city’s team.

“We are very excited to announce that our franchise name will change to Arizona Coyotes for the start of the 2014-15 NHL season. Becoming the Arizona Coyotes makes sense for us since we play our games in Glendale and the city is such a great partner of ours. We also want to be recognized as not just the hockey team for Glendale or Phoenix, but the team for the entire state of Arizona and the Southwest. We hope that the name ‘Arizona’ will encourage more fans from all over the state, not just the valley, to embrace and support our team,” said LeBlanc.

While the name will change, the jerseys will basically look the same, except for a new shoulder patch which will be unveiled on the Coyotes first preseason game of the 2014-2015 NHL season.

The change had been expected for a while, since negotiations with the city of Glendale for a new lease agreement for the arena to be exact, but the firm date of Wednesday was a bit unexpected.

And as is common with most organizations today, the Coyotes took to their official Twitter account to make the announcement and changes expected for the team next season. (Looks like they’ll need to change their Twitter handle soon as well.)